John W. Whitehead offers a more truthful state of the union than what you’ll hear tonight from Trump. From Whitehead at rutherford.org:
History has a funny way of circling back on itself.
The facts, figures, faces and technology may change from era to era, but the dangers remain the same.
This year is no different, whatever the politicians and talking heads may say to the contrary.
Brush up on your history, and you’ll find that we’ve been stuck on repeat for some time now.
The United States of America in the year 2018 is not so far different from the United States of America during the Civil Rights era, or the Cold War era, or even the Depression era.
Go far enough afield, and you’ll find aspects of our troubled history mirrored in the totalitarianism of Nazi Germany, in the fascism of Mussolini’s Italy, and further back in the militarism of the Roman Empire.
No matter how we change the narrative, change the characters, change the plot lines, we seem to keep ending up in the same place that we started: enslaved, divided and repeating the mistakes of the past.
You want to know about the true State of our Union? Listen up.
The State of the Union: The state of our union is politically polarized, controlled by forces beyond the purview of the average American, and rapidly moving the nation away from its freedom foundation. Consequently, the state of our nation has become more bureaucratic, more debt-ridden, more violent, more militarized, more fascist, more lawless, more invasive, more corrupt, more untrustworthy, more mired in war, and more unresponsive to the wishes and needs of the electorate. The policies of the American police state have continued unabated.
The Executive Branch: All of the imperial powers amassed by Barack Obama and George W. Bush—to kill American citizens without due process, to detain suspects indefinitely, to strip Americans of their citizenship rights, to carry out mass surveillance on Americans without probable cause, to suspend laws during wartime, to disregard laws with which he might disagree, to conduct secret wars and convene secret courts, to sanction torture, to sidestep the legislatures and courts with executive orders and signing statements, to direct the military to operate beyond the reach of the law, to act as a dictator and a tyrant, above the law and beyond any real accountability—were inherited by Donald Trump.
To continue reading: The State of Our Union: A House Divided, Enslaved & Mired in the Mistakes of the Past
While some good points are made I keep seeing the author with two of his mates stirring a boiling cauldron, going bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. Its hard to take someone seriously whose vision of an enlightened state is one with a government like Somalia ruled over by enlightened people like the author.
One does not pay attention to people who yell the sky is falling or that the end is near.
What if the sky is actually falling or the end is actually near?